A Wild Bobcat Uses One Of Its Nine Lives After Being Hit By A Car

Officials are calling it a New Year’s miracle after a wild bobcat survived a collision with a car.

An Arizona couple were running late to dinner in Scottsdale on Friday night when they felt a sudden bump driving through Camelback Road. The driver, A.J. Michaels, stepped out of the vehicle and found nothing, so he continued driving.

Once the couple reached their destination, Michaels noticed that there was a crack on his Mazda sedan’s grille. When he got closer, he noticed a wild bobcat was stuck in between the grille and the radiator.

“Scottsdale police came out, the officer tried to help us,” Susan Simpson, the passenger, told KPNX. “We tried to pull the grille out and nudge the bobcat out, but he wasn’t going anywhere.”

Arizona Game and Fish officials were called in to tranquilize the bobcat so that they could safely remove the animal from the grille. The bobcat was then taken to the Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center to be evaluated.

“There were no breaks or fractures - there were no lacerations on the cat whatsoever,” said Arizona Game and Fish official Geoffrey Hossack. “I would say his condition is amazing.

“It’s unheard of that an animal this small is going to get hit by a vehicle and survive.”

Lynda Lambert, an Arizona Game and Fish spokeswoman, said the bobcat will be released back into the wild hopefully sometime this week.

The Arizona couple are just glad the animal was unharmed.

“I think that that cat did lose one life,” Simpson added. “Hopefully he has eight more to go.”